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I want a tattoo saying 時間 (time). However I was told this is not suitable for a tattoo. I wanted to know how to say time in chinese with a deep meaning. Is there a way to add a character so that it would not look funny?

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This smells offtopic. We don't provide advice for tattoos here. – deutschZuid Feb 20 at 0:42
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Can you elaborate on which aspect of 'time' you are thinking about? What a similar word/phrase would be in English? – NS.X. Feb 20 at 1:20
I voted to close - It's off topic. This is a question about culture. Furthermore it's subjective. Oh and if you want my advice - Don't get any tattoo! – trideceth12 Feb 20 at 2:55

closed as off topic by Question Overflow, deutschZuid, trideceth12, Alenanno♦ Feb 20 at 9:33

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3 Answers

up vote 2 down vote

You're right, 時間 would be awkward... that's literally the noun "time", like "do you have any time?".

That seems awkward in English too to get such a tattoo.

Maybe you'd prefer something more poetic? Like...

永恆 yong3 heng2 = eternity

Or maybe even get an idiom... those are usually pretty:

萬古千秋 wan4 gu3 qian1 qiu = For all eternity

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I don't think it's awkward at all. The question is way too subjective. – deutschZuid Feb 20 at 2:47
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亙古不變 - never changed from ancient time

恆久 - for a long time

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up vote 4 down vote

I'm pretty sure this is not the answer you are looking for, but here it is anyway...

enter image description here

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My favorite was when I saw a girl with 火 tattooed on herself - I didn't have the heart to explain to her that it's pronounced "Whore" – trideceth12 Feb 20 at 9:50
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I think it's only a matter of time. Chinese really like English and like to be appear able to understand it. I saw tissue paper yesterday marked "Smooth and Tenacious" – tao Feb 20 at 10:49
Smooth and tenacious actually sounds like really good qualities for a tissue... – juckele Feb 20 at 12:31
@juckele I'd buy it :D – Growler Feb 20 at 14:24
Ha, I've seen this before. – deutschZuid Feb 20 at 21:29
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